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Nashville SC vs. Moca FC in CONCACAF Champions Cup: Here's our Game 1 score prediction
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- Nashville SC vs. Moca FC in CONCACAF Champions Cup: Here's our Game 1 score prediction
After five preseason games and five weeks of training, Nashville SC is set to officially begin its 2024 season.
Nashville travels to the Dominican Republic to face Moca FC for the first leg of the first round of the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Game 1 is scheduled for Thursday at 6 p.m. CT, and Nashville will host the second leg at Geodis Park on Feb. 28 (8:15 p.m.).
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Both teams are making their Champions Cup debuts. Nashville qualified by finishing second in last season's Leagues Cup , while Moca earned its spot by placing third in the Caribbean Cup.
Here's what to watch for, as well as a score prediction for Thursday:
Nashville has jam-packed schedule out of the gate
Nashville opens Major League Soccer play Sunday (4 p.m.) at home against the New York Red Bulls , followed by the second leg of the Champions Cup. If it advances past Moca, it will face Lionel Messi and Inter Miami in the Round of 16. Nashville would host the first leg on March 7 with Inter Miami hosting the second leg on March 13.
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Wrapped in between and around Champions Cup play are three MLS games: at the Colorado Rapids on March 2, at home against the Los Angeles Galaxy on March 10 and at home against Charlotte FC on March 16. The Champions Cup quarterfinals are not until April.
All summed up, Nashville could end up playing eight games in 23 days and travel nearly 7,000 miles to start the regular season. It would play five of those games on just two days rest. How coach Gary Smith manages tired legs over the season's first month could very well determine how the next eight go.
Moca will likely play very defensively
Smith said that Nashville hoped to replicate the challenge of playing Moca by facing Birmingham Legion FC and Memphis 901 FC for its final two preseason games. He anticipated that the teams from the lower-division USL Championship would happily cede possession and play a defensive style.
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Moca will almost certainly follow suit, packing in front of goal and hoping to score on the odd counterattack or set piece. But while less-talented teams often adopt this strategy out of necessity, this isn't the case with Moca.
While new manager Maximiliano Viera's preferred tactics are a mystery, Moca completed 302.3 passes per game during the 2023 Caribbean Cup — the second-lowest figure out of the competition's 10 teams. They were happy to let other teams pass the ball around while they waited for the right moment to strike. It worked, as Moca gave up six goals in eight matches during the Caribbean Cup and allowed 17 goals in 26 games during the Liga Dominicana de Futbol regular season.
MORE: Names to know besides Hany Mukhtar, Walker Zimmerman for 2024 Nashville SC MLS roster
MORE: Who is Moca FC? What to know of Nashville SC's first opponent in CONCACAF Champions Cup
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Upsets happen in CONCACAF Champions Cup
Thursday's game will take place at the Estadio Cibao FC in Santiago. The stadium hosted a first-round Champions Cup game in 2023, and it was a memorable one: Haitian club Violette, which hadn't played a competitive game in nearly 300 days and was temporarily without a home stadium due to violence in its country, shocked Austin FC 3-0. Violette advanced to the quarterfinals on aggregate goals after a 2-0 loss at Austin in the second leg, earning the result with just three substitutes due to visa issues.
Caribbean teams are inherent underdogs in the Champions Cup: none have reached the finals since 1991. But upsets — as Violette showed a year ago — do occasionally happen.
The now-defunct Puerto Rico Islanders reached the semifinals in 2009, coming a penalty shootout away from the final, and beat the Los Angeles Galaxy over two legs two years later. Joe Public FC, a now-defunct team from Trinidad and Tobago, bounced the New England Revolution from the 2008-09 competition by beating them 2-1 at home and 4-0 on the road.
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Nashville vs. Moca score prediction
Nashville 1, Moca 0:In an unfamiliar atmosphere against a well-drilled, upset-minded opponent, Nashville's attack doesn't always hum, but it takes care of business and heads back home in position to advance.
Jacob Shames can be reached by email at jshames@gannett.com and on Twitter @Jacob_Shames.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville SC score prediction vs. Moca FC in CONCACAF Champions Cup
